1918 - Religion

Religion

The International Church of the Four-Square Gospel is founded at Los Angeles by Canadian-born evangelist Aimee (Elizabeth) Semple McPherson (née Kennedy), 28, who accompanied her first husband as a missionary to Hong Kong, has walked out on the father of her second child, and comes to the city in a seven-passenger Oldsmobile whose doors carry the message, "Jesus is coming soon—Get Ready. Where will you spend Eternity?" in six-inch-high letters. She conducts healing services for victims of the influenza epidemic, promises that the "deaf hear, the blind see, and the lame walk," and offers hope and salvation to Southern and Midwestern migrants newly arrived in Southern California. McPherson will create a large following that will provide funds to build the huge Angelus Temple from which her sermons will be broadcast over a radio station purchased with contributions from the faithful. Patriotic-religious music played by a 50-piece band will precede the sermons, and the McPherson movement, based largely on faith healing, adult baptism, and fundamentalist spectacle, will attract thousands (see 1923).